Tag Archives: props


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Super Mario Bros Princess Peach Star Wand DIY

Can you believe it’s March already? It’s the 2nd annual Mario Month here on the blog and this year’s first post of the Super-Mario-themed collection is a DIY for a star wand you can carry as part of a Princess Peach costume.

I’d been asked to make the accessories for a Mario Bros skit and was given the above example of the desired wand for our Princess Peach character. Easy-peasy! Most of the needed supplies can be found at the dollar store or you might even have them on hand already.

You’ll need:

Other supplies that I used for the plastic canvas insert step but are not necessary if you use heavy cardstock and/or don’t need your wand to last as long as we did:

Start by scaling an image of the Starman to the proper size for your wand and cut it out of regular paper. (Alternatively you can draw a star shape freehand but I ALWAYS mess those up!). If using heavy cardstock for your star you can jump to the next step. My bag was the perfect color but a bit flimsy, and this prop had to last for at least 6 shows and a dozen or so rehearsals, so I chose to reinforce mine with plastic canvas inserts. If you would like to do the same trace your star template onto plastic canvas. It’s a good idea to mark which direction is “up” so your stars will be sure to align.

NOTE: I should have made my plastic canvas inserts SMALLER than the Starman template. As you’ll see below, I ended up trimming them down so the yellow stars could meet evenly at the edges. To avoid this mistake trace a second line about 1/4″ inside your original edge and cut out on that line.

Wrap your dowel evenly with yellow electrical tape. You can paint the dowel yellow instead but for our purposes the electrical tape was more durable and waterproof. It also allowed me to even out areas where the bamboo was uneven by wrapping more (or less) in those spots. Then wrap again with the silver ribbon, spacing out the wraps to create diagonal stripes. You can secure the ends with regular scotch tape or more of the yellow electrical tape – neither end will be visible once the wand is complete so use whatever you’d like.

Cover the bottom end of the dowel with black tape. I used my fist as a rough guide for how long I wanted the handgrip to be and then wrapped more black tape, padding out the bottom edge slightly for a comfortable hold.

Optional: I debated hot-gluing the plastic canvas to the dowel but was worried it would break or separate during rehearsals (we were a rowdy bunch lol) so needed something permanent and secure. I decided to use the holes in the plastic canvas to my advantage and sew through the dowel to keep it in place. I marked holes on the dowel using the plastic canvas as a template for placement and then drilled directly through the bamboo dowel with my Dremel. I have a Dremel drill press which makes this step super easy but it’s 100% NOT necessary.

Now it’s time to trace your Starman template onto your yellow paper/cardstock.

I used carbon paper to trace onto both pieces at once to be sure both stars would be the identical size/shape, but this is totally optional. Just be sure to trace on the reverse side so in case you leave any pencil showing it will be on the inside of your finished star. I tested the plastic canvas inserts and realized I hadn’t left any clearance so had to trim down both of my stars to ensure the paper pieces would be able to touch. As mentioned above – if you do this be sure to cut your plastic stars smaller to start.

To attach the stars to the dowel I sandwiched them on either side of the bamboo and sewed a running stitch from one side to the other, then up to the next hole, and back to the first side…repeating this until I’d worked through all the holes. I was able to fit my yellow yarn but you can use doubled thread if your yarn is too thick. This will work best if you pre-mark your hole locations onto both pieces of plastic canvas first, to ensure you’ve sewn both stars to the same height and equally centered.

Use yarn to whipstitch the edges of the star closed.

I used the carbon paper again to trace Starman’s eyes and then colored them in with black Sharpie and a white POSCA paint marker.

Cut out both sides of your Starman. As one final layer of stage/rehearsal protection I sealed the paper’s surface with a layer of clear packing tape on both sides. This would ensure that the paper couldn’t accidentally rip or tear.

The final step is to sandwich the yellow star layers on either side of the plastic insert. Place the face side (with the eyes) in front of you and lay a few strips of packing tape evenly across, leaving a few inches of extra tape all around. Carefully pick up the taped piece and turn it over so the sticky side is facing up. Put the wand/plastic piece in place and then lay the back of the star down, yellow-side out, being very careful to line up both stars perfectly. Apply more strips of packing tape so the sticky sides meet and lock the stars together. **It’s a bit awkward to keep the back star aligned while laying the strips of tape which is why I do the face side first.

If not using a plastic insert then before placing the second side use extra packing tape to tape the dowel to the inside of the first side.

Press the tape together really well all along the edges of the star to really seal the front and back together, and then cut around the star leaving a thin strip of taped edge. It won’t show much (especially from the stage) but it guarantees you don’t trim too close to the paper and create a gap between the pieces.

Enjoy your star wand!

Ours worked great – lasting well through all rehearsals, tech week, and performances!

Other Mario-themed projects you might like:

This post may contain affiliate links. This means I might make a small commission on purchases made through the links, at no cost to you.


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Annual Halloween Roundup

It’s October, so that means it’s time for my annual roundup of costume-related patterns and tutorials available here on the blog.

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to make Minecraft Steve & Creeper heads.

Next up (with over 420,000 impressions on Pinterest in the last 60 days alone!) is a similar tutorial, this time for making a Minecraft Enderman head along with a diamond block trick-or-treat box.

Both projects include full charts for game-accurate colors and the exact hex codes for perfect color matching!

If your idea of fantasy is less block-based and more magical, here’s a free knitting pattern for an easy scarf in the Gryffindor house colors.

If training a dragon is more your thing, here’s how to make a viking vest.

If you prefer Pokemon to Night Furies, here’s an easy, last-minute Pikachu costume idea.

If your friends-group themed costume runs more Grease than Greninja, here’s how you can make a super simple Poodle skirt.

If you’re looking to visually upgrade some inexpensive props, here’s a demo on repainting plastic swords.

If you’ve got a last-minute party invite to deal with, here’s a SUPER quick ‘n easy Jughead Jones (from Archie Comics) costume tutorial with free burger dream bubble printable!

If your group costume needs accessories, here’s a free tutorial on making Super Mario Bros Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi hats

If you want to take those Mario Bros costumes one step further, here are instructions on making their respective mustaches

If you REALLY want to go all out, here’s the full costume breakdown with instructions on making an entire Wario costume

Finally, if you’ve got enough knitting time on your hands, you can knit my Baby’s First Superhero Costume pattern as-is with cute designs for boys and girls, or convert the chart and the colors to create your superhero of choice.

Find more tips and tutorials on my How-To page!


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DIY Twisted Sister Album Replica

Today I’m going to share the steps I took to create a prop replica of this Twisted Sister record album for a Becket stage show a few years ago:

We had done a skit routine to the song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” which was released 38 years ago today, on April 27th 1984. In addition to the skit requirements of tossing the record album around, in general props are often flung out of the way during quick set changes, and we didn’t want to take a chance on damaging an actual record, even if we’d owned one. Therefore I decided to make this stage-safe replica that I could easily re-make in case of damage or loss.

The basis of the record is a piece of stiff cardboard cut to size. Standard record albums are 7″, 10″ and 12″. Unfortunately the best piece of cardboard I had was only 11″ wide but since no one would be able to tell from the audience so I cut it into a square to use. The key was cardboard that would be thick enough to not bend or warp during the multiple rehearsals and performances. If your cardboard is too thin you can layer a few sheets together with glue.

To replicate the “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll” album, my next step was to paint the entire surface with black acrylic paint. I will be demonstrating the steps for this specific album but the same principles can be followed to recreate any required prop for theater or costume use. You can even copy your favorite albums for wall decor!

Many of my projects involve using templates and this one is no different! Once I’d chosen my cardboard I printed a copy of the record album to the appropriate scale.

Then I used the graphite trick of scribbling along the back of my image in order to transfer the design. These days I use carbon paper as I find it faster and easier, but pencils work well too.

With the back of the image covered in graphite (or with carbon paper underneath), I placed it into the correct spot and traced over all the lines. A stylus works great for this but you can just as easily use a pencil or ballpoint pen.

It’s hard to see the transferred image. I did play with the contrast to try and show it but it’s pretty faint.

Using the original album cover art for reference, I colored in the image with metallic markers and added highlights with a Derwent Drawing white pencil.

I used the same transfer method to add the album title…

…though this time I pushed a bit harder into the cardboard to give my marker ink borders. This can help contain a bit of the ink flow, if your markers are very runny. If you don’t have markers in the proper colors you can paint your album cover instead.

I had a close-enough color in my metallic markers so I used that for the band name and smaller lettering.

That’s it!

The final touch was a few coats of sealant for protection and then the album cover replica was complete!

This was a super easy and fast DIY that looks incredibly effective on stage, and because it was only cardboard and markers I didn’t have to add to our prop budget nor worry if it took some abuse and I had to remake it. That said, it was surprisingly sturdy and held up great through every rehearsal and all performances.

You can easily use the same steps to recreate any album for your own prop needs.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means I might make a small commission on purchases made through the links, at no cost to you.


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How To: DIY Super Mario Bros Banner

For my last post of Mario Month 2022, I’m going to show you how to make these DIY Super Mario Bros-themed banners:

I used them as stage runners for a Mario-themed skit, but they can also be hung as banners to dress up the decor at a Mario-themed party, photoshoot or event.

In case it’s been a while since you’ve seen what a Super Mario Brothers game looks like, this is the setting I was attempting to recreate on stage:

I’ve already made a warp pipe set piece, but to really give the stage a “Mario-world” look I decided to make banners/runners in the style of the iconic bricks, blocks and ground texture.

If you look at the screenshot it’s clear there are 3 distinct patterns – the bricks, the “?” blocks, and the ground sections. Before I can scale and print my templates I needed to know what dimension I could work with.

I used the same roll of recycled paper as for the warp pipe, and it is 36″ wide so the easiest thing to do was to cut the roll in half lengthwise, and base my measurements around that.

On my computer I cropped out one repeat section of each of the 3 patterns and scaled them evenly to be 18″ high.

I printed the templates and taped the sections of paper together to have exactly the pieces I needed. Then I cut my strips to the proper length. The floating banner (the one Mario jumps on/under) was cut to fit 6 blocks of my template wide to best fit the width of our band’s drum riser. For the ground-level banner, I wanted to fill as much as possible of my stage width, so I divided my total stage width (about 30′) by the width of the ground template, and made sure I cut my length appropriately to fit in the maximum number of repeats that would fit my stage.

This paper rolls up nicely which makes storage of both the materials in progress as well as the final banners a breeze!

As for the warp pipe, the whole project was done with inexpensive materials, including the acrylic paint. I started with the floating segment and marked off the width of each segment, then painted the brick sections brown.

I had just barely enough room to set it aside to dry so I could move on to the stage runner.

The stage runner was given a brown base coat along the entire length.

Due to space constraints, I set up my workstation to allow me to keep moving the runner to the right, while working from the left.

Luckily by the time I ran out of room to extend the far end, it was dry enough to roll up on itself.

The ground template would be getting a lot of use as I had to trace it over and over along the entire length of the runner, so I protected it with my favorite cheap lamination method – packing tape.

Then I set about tracing it over and over and over…

Carbon paper is fantastic for this as it provides erasable marks that are dark enough to be seen but light enough to be painted over. I used a ruler to be sure my lines would be straight, and a pen, stylus or chopstick/skewer would all work equally well for the tracing.

Once all the tracing was done it was time to paint the details. This required black and white paint, along with some extra brown to fix any mistakes.

I didn’t want any color bleeding, so first I worked my way through painting the white sections…

…rolling the work up as soon as it was dry enough to move forward…

…and then once the white was complete I moved it to the other side to start over, now painting the black ones.

It’s a long process, but very relaxing and great for podcast/audiobook listening!

With the ground painted and set aside, I returned to the floating banner and added a lighter brown base to the “?” block sections.

Just as for the ground, I traced my templates and then worked in sections to paint them.

First I did all the black and the bit of white highlight on the bricks…

…and then I went back in and did the remaining brown on the “?” blocks.

I love the finished result! It’s so easy and doesn’t take too long but has such a high visual impact for the stage or as party decor.

You can see how accurate the result turns out when you use a good, scaled template.

Once all the painting was done I gave the banners a few days to air dry to be sure there was no moisture left in the recycled paper, and then I set about laminating them.

If you’re only making a banner for a party or to stage a photoshoot, this next step is optional.

Just as for the warp pipe, these banners would be used in a stage show with multiple performances and incredibly quick set changes, and it would be a waste of my time and effort making them if they ripped during rehearsal or mid-performance.

Starting with a 1-2′ strip of tape, I lay it on one of the straight edges, overlapping halfway. Then I lifted the edge of the banner and folded the free half of the tape over, pressing well. This protected the edge of the paper from any moisture getting in.

Repeat the process on all edges. For a long banner like the ground one, you can do this in sections as you go.

Then, using more packing tape, work horizontally across your piece to laminate it. Overlap your strips slightly, again to make sure no gaps are left where moisture could get in. Once done, trim up your edges with a craft knife.

I chose to also laminate the back of my banners. While this does use up extra tape and is not visible to the audience, it provides an extra layer of durability and moisture protection. Also, as we were using velcro tape to quickly hang and remove the banners during each performance, I didn’t want to take a chance on being able to pull the tape off from the paper and damaging it.

The finished banner is now durable and reliable for frequent rough handling.

I then repeated the same process on the ground-level banner.

And with that, they are complete. The banners roll up easily for storage and transport, and applied perfectly to our stage pieces with heavy duty velcro tape. We had incredibly quick, rough set changes where the stage hands slapped them into place and then ripped them off while running off stage during the blackouts, and they held up perfectly!

Here’s how they looked on stage. The original plan was to have the drum riser get the floating banner and hang the ground runner off the front of the stage, but in dress rehearsals we realized that it would be too low to be seen by anyone in the audience except the very front, so we raised it up to run the length of the full band riser instead.

It was a really cute, fun skit/dance number, and definitely an audience favorite. I was so pleased that my stage runners, warp pipe, and all the costume pieces were an important part of that, and have held up to this day (4 years later).

All of this year’s Mario Month posts are from that skit, and next year’s will include instructions on how to make Princess Peach’s wand, Toad’s hat, and the Piranha Pete costume.

Other Mario-themed posts you might like:

This post may contain affiliate links. This means I might make a small commission on purchases made through the links, at no cost to you.


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How to: Super Mario Bros Warp Pipe set piece

It’s Mario month! March 10th is Mario Day (get it? MAR-10 looks like Mario!) but I’ve decided to make it an entire Mario month here on the blog by sharing a bunch of Super Mario-themed DIY projects. This assortment of costume and set pieces were made for a Mario Bros skit we did in Becket a few years back, but they would work just as well for Hallowe’en, cosplay, photoshoots or even birthday party decor and favors.

The first of the bunch is a set piece, specifically the Super Mario Bros warp pipe:

If you look closely at the warp pipe you’ll see there are two distinct repeats.

Ignoring the black outline for now, the top section has two unique horizontal stripes followed by a repeat that runs the rest of the shorter section (the vertical sections and checkerboard). The bottom section of the warp pipe has a horizontal black shadow followed by a similar, but narrower, vertical stripe/checkerboard repeat.

You’ll want to scale the pipe to your desired width. For the base of my set pieces I used a roll of recycled paper that was 36″ wide, so that was my max width. The paper would later be mounted onto plywood with an angled brace on the back to keep it standing on stage.

A design like the warp pipe is pretty linear and easy to plot out freehand, but I wanted to make sure I had everything scaled properly so I cropped out both repeats highlighted above and resized them to be 36″ wide. I then taped my printouts together to get an accurate slice of each pipe section.

This is the roll of recycled paper I used. The split sections were cut for the matching stage runners and then I cut a piece about 4.5′ long for the warp pipe itself.

This entire project was done with inexpensive materials, including the acrylic paint.

Start by painting the entire surface the pipe’s base green. I didn’t cut the pipe shape at this point because I would be using the side edges to line up my pattern.

Once dry, draft the pattern onto your surface. You can measure it out if you like but I found it easier to use carbon paper to trace the top pipe pattern, and then used a ruler to measure out and repeat the checkered grid 6 times. By tracing the top with carbon paper I had the exact placement of the vertical lines and was able to easily use a ruler and continue them down to where the lower section began.

For the lower pipe section I repeated the process, tracing the top of the lower pipe and the first checkerboard repeat. I then moved the template down to the bottom edge and traced the vertical lines again. I didn’t trace the horizontal lines as I wanted to measure out the checkboard squares themselves, but by tracing the vertical lines I was able to connect them to the ones higher up and ensure my lines were straight. It really helps to use the longest ruler you’ve got! I use this adjustable t-square for drafting and as a cutting edge and love it.

I boosted the contrast on this image to try and show all the pencil lines. I wasn’t terribly concerned about them showing through the paint as this is a stage prop and wouldn’t be seen from close up, but if you are concerned about that you can sketch lightly or erase your lines slightly to soften them (though that might require paint touch-ups later).

Now that the guide lines were in place I used a craft knife and my ruler’s edge to trim the side for the warp pipe’s shape. I then painted the lighter green color. You can also do this in reverse – do your base layer in the lighter shade and then add the darker details later. You can also sketch right onto your untouched paper and paint both colors later, if desired.

Do as many coats of the green as required for it to be opaque. Once the greens are dry, add a black border and shadow under the top section.

You could stop at this point but since mine was for a set piece that would be carried on and off stage for at least 6 shows and a handful of rehearsals, I wanted to make sure it would be durable. I knew it would be glued to wood but didn’t want the paper to tear or have paint flake off. So I decided to use my favorite cheap & easy lamination method – clear packing tape!

Start by adding one strip of tape that overhangs your piece on both ends to secure it to your cutting surface. (My cutting surface is my dining room table, which has many cuts from previous projects. Don’t be like me LOL).

You’ll want the tape running either vertically or horizontally, but for the best look you want it running in nice, straight lines. I used the edge of the black border to line up my first strip.

I deliberately DIDN’T line up to the edge of the pipe, even though I was confident my edge was straight. This is because I wanted my edge piece of tape to be centered half on, and half off the edge, so I could fold it over the edge for protection.

Continue taping, doing your best to keep the tape smooth and flat, without wrinkles. Large air bubbles can be popped with a pin and smoothed out but an even application will help avoid them. If you look closely at the top left of the pipe in the image above, you can see the tape overhanging the side of the top of the pipe, about to be folded to the back.

Here it is fully taped.

If worried about the glare from the tape you can also use Mod Podge or a spray sealant.

And here it is in the show! For reference, that’s me as Wario, and I’m 5’4″. It made a great bit of stage decor and a convenient hiding place for some skit props we hid behind it!

Other Mario-themed posts you might like:

This post may contain affiliate links. This means I might make a small commission on purchases made through the links, at no cost to you.


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Retro DIY 3D Doritos Bag

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and everyone knows the best parts of any Super Bowl are the snacks and the commercials, right? (No? Just me?)

It’s been 24 years (!!!) since Ali Landry famously tossed 3D Doritos into a laundromat dryer in an ad during Super Bowl XXXII, and 1 year since she showed she’s still got the same moves for snacking. I had to recreate this vintage snack a few years ago as a prop for a skit that took place in the 90s, and today I’m going to show you how you can make your own. Whether it’s for a play, a costume accessory, or simply nostalgic feels, it’s a quick and easy DIY that doesn’t require many supplies to make.

Note: 3D Doritos were relaunched in 2021 and got Matthew McConaughey’s “FlatMatthew” ad during Super Bowl LV, but they redesigned the bag so we’re going to focus on the original.

Besides access to a printer, you’ll need a few other supplies:

  • paper
    • I used full-page sticker paper, but you can use regular printer paper as well. If using sticker paper make sure it’s white and matte.
  • Markers or colored pencils
  • clear packing tape
  • scissors
  • glue stick (if you used printer paper)
  • 1 bag of regular Doritos

Start with your bag of Doritos. Empty the bag (into a bowl… or your mouth… no judgements here) and then carefully wash the inside and outside with soapy water. You want to make sure there is no food left inside that could mold over time, as well as remove any greasy or oily fingerprints from the outside that could interfere with your glue/tape.

3D Doritos have a red background so I used a bag of regular nacho flavor Doritos as my base so the back of the bag would match the altered front. Allow your bag to dry thoroughly before attaching your image.

Find a source image online and print it to scale with your bag. There are a number of great image resources out there, so you can use your favorite. Just be sure to choose a the highest image quality you can find, for the best results when printing.

If your printer quality is lackluster, like mine, you can retouch your printout with markers or colored pencils. I needed my prop to be highly visible from stage to an audience of 200-300 people, so I chose to deepen some of the sections for higher contrast.

In the image on the left, you can see the difference in the retouched red (to the left of my marker) vs unretouched (the right side, which I’d already outlined with the marker). In the middle image you can see the yellow marker inside the D, and in the last image you can see the contrast between the first half of each word vs the paler second half.

Once you’re happy with your retouching, cover the entire image with clear packing tape.

Try to be as smooth as possible but if you get a few wrinkles (like I did) it isn’t the end of the world as we will be crumpling the bag later. The wrinkles won’t show from the audience so don’t stress over them.

Here you can see the vivid difference between the retouched, taped good copy and my first print that was slightly too small.

The final image is bolder and more vibrant, with higher contrast. It also more closely resembles the shiny foil of an actual bag of chips vs a printed piece of paper.

Trim your image to the size of your bag. If using sticker paper, peel off your backing and apply your sticker. If using regular paper, cover the back with stick glue then set it in place.

Use more packing tape to seal all 4 edges so your new chip bag front is fully secure.

Continue around the back, and fully cover the back, bottom seam, and open edges with packing tape as well. Foil bags tear easily and the packing tape will keep your prop from falling apart when handled.

We needed an open bag that an actor could pretend to eat from, but you could just as easily stuff the bag lightly with crumped paper and tape the bag shut, to recreate a brand-new, unopened bag of chips.

The final step after taping is to crumple the bag like crazy. For real! Squish it, scrunch it, really work creases into that tape! Real bags will fold and crease easily and stiff, straight surfaces will spoil the illusion so don’t be afraid to crumple it up into a little ball and squeeze well.

Dig in!

This post may contain affiliate links. This means I might make a small commission on purchases made through the links, at no cost to you.


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Skylanders Sprocket Cosplay – Wrench Part 3

In my last post I explained how to calculate yarn yardage needed for plastic canvas stitching.  Here’s the breakdown of how that applies to my project, Sprocket’s wrench.

The following chart shows each piece I’ll need to stitch, its dimensions, and what the resulting area is (in ‘holes’).

wrenchyardage All that figuring tells me I need 189.18 yards of yarn to stitch the wrench NOT counting any edging or whipstitching to join.  Sadly I only had 160y of my first choice yarn, a skein of gray acrylic from my stash.  I went stashdiving (virtually, thanks to a long weekend spent entering everything into Ravelry) and discovered 2 other possible gray yarns.  Briggs & Little’s Tuffy in Smoke, of which I have 10 skeins, and the gray localspun wool from my frogged Linden.  I went initially to the localspun but in the light the natural wool, blended from assorted animals, was overall too creamy for this project.  There were a lot of beige tones that wouldn’t work well to represent metal.  I’d been hoping to avoid breaking into the Tuffy so I could keep the lot for some other project, but I realized that I’d been holding onto it, unused, for about 10 years now.  Time to use it.

I’ve been toting around my bag of project pieces everywhere I went, using every minute of available time to stitch.  It’s dawning on me just how close July 4th is, and how ambitious my version of this costume is, and I’m realizing I might have to cut corners somewhere, but using spare time wisely will help me get the most done.  So whether I’m waiting for my kids at daycare or sitting in a waiting room or in line at the grocery store, I’ve been pulling out a piece of canvas and stitching wherever I was.

And it paid off.  As of yesterday, June 12, the wrench pieces are complete.

skylanders sprocket wrench parts

All that remains now is to stitch them together into the assembled, 3D wrench/purse.

And then make a vest, goggles, wig, gauntlets, chest plate, belt and boots.

In two weeks.

 


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Skylanders Sprocket Cosplay – Wrench Part 2

More progress on Sprocket’s giant wrench.  First I traced out the shape for the smaller set of jaws by placing plastic canvas directly on top of my to-size sketch.  The resulting shape isn’t completely round, but I’m ok with that, considering my medium.  Plus I’m getting a slight Millennium Falcon vibe I’m completely cool with.  😀sprocket wrench wip 05

I cut out that piece and then traced it onto more plastic canvas so I’d have an exact duplicate.sprocket wrench wip 06

I used a dollar store permanent marker to do my tracing.  It didn’t rub off while I worked, either on the plastic or my hands, which was a welcome surprise.  I didn’t want to risk it showing through the stitching later, so I tested out removing it with some water and a Q-Tip I had handy.  When I saw it would work I moved to the sink and most of it came off quite easily with a quick scrub under running water.

There are five more pieces needed to complete the smaller jaw- two 3 hole by 10 hole rectangles (to connect the top and bottom at the flat ends where the jaws are open), and three strips, one for each outer edge and one for the inside curve of the jaws.

I wasn’t quite sure how long they would be.  I guessed it would be one square long for each square around, but I didn’t want to assume that, cut and stitch them, and find they didn’t perfectly fit when eased around the curves.  Plus, being familiar with knitting and easing neckbands and sleeves into curves, I know sometimes you need a bit extra to ease into place.  The answer?sprocket wrench wip 07

Pac Man!

Basting, actually.  Starting with the inner piece, I cut my 10-hole-wide strip longer than I needed and basted it in place, starting with the center 4 holes and working out to either side.sprocket wrench wip 08

Voila.  A strip I know fits because it, well, fits.

😀  Amazing how that works!  Hehe.

It turned out to be 10 holes wide by 62 holes long.  Last thing for the smaller jaws was to use the same basting technique to figure out how long to cut the 2 strips for the outsides of the jaws, and they turned out to be 10 holes wide by 47 holes long.

On to the larger jaws…but first… cutting plastic canvas leaves a lot of smaller pieces, many of which can be saved and used in other projects.  The problem with keeping all the cut-offs is that they can get easily confused with the pieces I do need.

To minimize confusion, I ran a length of waste yarn through the good pieces, keeping them grouped by section so I didn’t risk mixing anything up.  Once that was done and things looked a little less messy, I moved onto the larger jaws.  I worked them the same as the smaller- tracing the shape onto plastic canvas, then cutting it out.

Instead of tracing the cut shape for my duplicate, this time I tried tracing the uncut shape and it worked just fine.  (Laying a fresh piece of plastic canvas over the one with the dark outline).  Then I cut the 2 3 hole by 10 hole pieces for the two narrow tips.

I did the same trick of basting in longer pieces to figure out how long a strip to cut for the lining of the inside of the jaws (10 holes wide by 88 holes long) and for the jaws’ outside curves (2 strips each 10 holes wide by 73 holes long.)

I completely forgot to take pics of the large jaws so picture the exact same process as the smaller ones, but… uh, bigger.

Technically I’m done, but I want to give it a little more stability on the inside, so I cut some spacers, 20 holes long by 10 holes wide, that I can tack into place along the inside of the wrench’s handle.

The last pieces to calculate and cut are the decorative trims…except…

This is where I stalled.

Because I had an idea and I wasn’t sure how to execute it.

See I figured… I’m gonna be in full costume, carrying around a giant wrench, and there was only one spot in the outfit that might work to incorporate pockets.  So between my phone, my ID, money (cus shopping!), and the entry program, I’d have ‘stuff’.  Plus I’d likely accumulate more ‘stuff’… business cards and things.  But I really don’t want to have to carry a purse.  So what if… I mean, I’m carrying around a giant, hollow object…

See where I’m going with this?

😀

The wrench is going to be my purse.

The 17″ wide handle is perfect, giving me a 5″ section I can keep my phone and ID in, and a 12″ section plenty big enough to hold a rolled-up program or any art I might get.  (I’m hoping to get something Archie-related).

The only thing giving me a hard time was how to handle the closure.  I spent some time drawing sketches and ruling stuff out, then when I hit upon a possible solution I made a little swatch to try it:

sprocket wrench wip 10

What I wasn’t sure of was whether or not a hinged lid with a stitched lip would stick out over a stitched base.  sprocket wrench wip 09Seeing how well it lays flush over an unstitched base, I’m going to go with that.  I showed my sample to Yannick and he suggested flipping it on its side, so the handle opens along its narrow end.  I told him I’d already thought of that and discounted it because I couldn’t figure out how to not make the sealing flap look silly.  He suggested hiding it along the decorative trip that would already be visible.

And just like that, it clicked.

Here’s what I’m planning:sprocket wrench wip 12sprocket wrench wip 11

Kinda like this.  Ish.

I re-cut and adjusted the top of the handle to reflect that, and then cut the 2 small and 2 large decorative trims for the jaws.

With that, I think all the strips (except the velcro lining bits) are cut.  Next post- how to calculate how much yarn I’ll need.


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Skylanders Sprocket Cosplay – Wrench part 1

The kids were remarkably cooperative in going to bed on time last night so I was able to whip through the stuff I had to do (finish making Jakob’s birthday party loot bags) so I could get to what I wanted to do: start my cosplay!

For assorted reasons involving the late hour, my inability to leave my sleeping children home alone while I went out shopping, and the contents of my craft stash, process of elimination led me to start with what I had the materials for- Sprocket’s big-ass wrench.

The first step was figuring out how big it actually is.  I started by using the official Skylanders image:

sprocket2

and then doing some calculations.  First I measured the width of her right hand’s fingers, as they appear on my screen, where they’re gripping the wrench.  I got roughly 0.5″ (adjusted for the angle).  Then I measured the wrench itself, and got roughly 5.5″.  Basic math says that her wrench is 11 times as long as the width of her knuckles.  Next I measured my own knuckles, and got 3″.  Multiplying my own knuckle width by the same 11 times gives me an estimate that my wrench should be roughly 33″ long.  Using those two sets of numbers I was able to do math (yay math!*) to figure out how large to scale up the measurements I took off my computer screen and figure out some decent approximate dimensions.

Once I had my numbers I could start to plot it out.  I taped together a few sheets of my kids’ construction paper and began to sketch out the wrench’s shape.

sprocket wrench wip 01   I didn’t think they’d miss the pink.

I sketched in pen ‘cus it was handy and I was on a roll so when I was done I went over the final shape with a colored Sharpie to make sure I used the correct outline when tracing the plastic canvas.sprocket wrench wip 02

Oh.  Yeah.  Did I not mention that?  This is going to be an entirely YARN-BASED cosplay.

*grins*

My plan is to stitch the whole thing in gray yarn with a 2nd layer for the detailing, and to join them with darker gray yarn to give the outline detail.

First up- cut my pieces.  Since the prop is going to be three-dimensional I need to cut the top, bottom and sides, plus the inside of the jaws, and then probably a few inner bracers for support.  Unfortunately my largest sheets of plastic canvas aren’t quite long enough to cut the whole length from one sheet, so I’m going to get around that by having my joins where the jaws begin, so any structural weakness will be compensated for (and any visible joins hidden by) the shape change.sprocket wrench wip 03

I have a bunch of packs of plastic canvas but only one sheet long enough to span the spanner (heh) without a join.  Luckily it’s wide enough to give me all four sides.sprocket wrench wip 04

The top and bottom are each 3″ wide by 17″ long, which translates to 20 holes by 113 holes, the sides are 1.5″ wide by 17″ long so that becomes 10 holes by 113 holes.  All the depth-giving pieces will be 10 holes wide by whatever length needed to fit easily around the curves.

I stopped at that point so I could go to bed.  Next will be the socket’s jaws and the decorative overlay, and then swatching to see how much yarn I’ll need.

*For real.  I love math.